STORIES OF THE CHILDREN OF THE BELOCADE LENINGRAD
On November 22, 1941, during the blockade of Leningrad, an ice route through Lake Ladoga began to operate. Thanks to her, many children were able to go to the evacuation. Before that, some of them went through orphanages: someone's relatives died, and someone else disappeared at work for days on end.
“At the beginning of the war, we probably did not realize that our childhood, and family, and happiness would someday be destroyed. But almost immediately we felt it,” says Valentina Trofimovna Gershunina, who in 1942, nine years old, was taken from orphanage in Siberia. Listening to the stories of the grown-up blockade survivors, you understand: having managed to save their lives, they lost their childhood. These guys had to do too many "adult" things while real adults fought - at the front or at the machine tools.
Several women who had once been taken out of besieged Leningrad told us their stories. Stories of stolen childhood, loss, and life against all odds.
"We saw grass and started eating it like cows"
The story of Irina Konstantinovna Potravnova
Little Ira lost her mother, brother and gift in the war. “I had absolute pitch. I managed to study at a music school,” says Irina Konstantinovna. “They wanted to take me to the school at the conservatory without exams, they told me to come in September. And in June the war began.”
Irina Konstantinovna was born into an Orthodox family: dad was a regent in the church, and mom sang in the choir. In the late 1930s, my father began working as the chief accountant of a technological institute. They lived in two-story wooden houses on the outskirts of the city. There were three children in the family, Ira was the youngest, she was called a stump. The Pope died a year before the start of the war. And before his death, he said to his wife: "Just take care of your son." The son died first - back in March. The wooden houses burned down during the bombing, and the family went to their relatives. “Dad had an amazing library, and we could only take the most necessary things. We collected two large suitcases,” says Irina Konstantinovna. “It was a cold April. On the way, our cards were stolen."
April 5, 1942 was Easter, and Irina Konstantinovna's mother went to the market to buy at least duranda, the pulp of seeds that remained after pressing the oil. She returned with a fever and did not get up again.
So the sisters of eleven and fourteen were left alone. To get at least some cards, they had to go to the city center - otherwise no one would have believed that they were still alive. On foot - the transport did not go for a long time. And slowly - because there was no strength. Came for three days. And the cards were stolen from them again - all but one. Her girls were given away to somehow bury their mother. After the funeral, the older sister went to work: fourteen-year-old children were already considered "adults". Irina came to the orphanage, and from there - to the orphanage. “So we broke up on the street and didn’t know anything about each other for a year and a half,” she says.
Irina Konstantinovna remembers the feeling of constant hunger and weakness. Children, ordinary children who wanted to jump, run and play, could hardly move - like old women.
“Somehow, on a walk, I saw painted “classics,” she says. “I wanted to jump. I got up, but I couldn’t tear my legs off! tears are flowing. She tells me: "Don't cry, honey, then you'll jump. We were so weak."
In the Yaroslavl region, where the children were evacuated, the collective farmers were ready to give them anything - it was so painful to look at the bony, emaciated children. There just wasn't much to give. “We saw the grass and started eating it like cows. We ate everything we could,” says Irina Konstantinovna. “By the way, no one got sick with anything.” At the same time, little Ira found out that she had lost her hearing due to the bombing and stress. Forever and ever.
Irina Konstantinovna
There was a piano at school. I ran up to him and I understand - I can’t play. The teacher came. She says: "What are you, girl?" I answer: here the piano is out of tune. She told me: "Yes, you do not understand anything!" I'm in tears. I don’t understand, I know everything, I have an absolute ear for music ...
Irina Konstantinovna
There were not enough adults, it was difficult to look after the children, and Irina, as a diligent and smart girl, was made a teacher. She took the guys to the fields - to earn workdays. “We spread flax, we had to fulfill the norm - 12 acres per person. Curly flax was easier to spread, but after fiber flax, all hands festered,” recalls Irina Konstantinovna. “Because the little hands were still weak, scratched.” So - in work, hunger, but security - she lived for more than three years.
At the age of 14, Irina was sent to rebuild Leningrad. But she had no documents, and during a medical examination, the doctors recorded that she was 11 - the girl looked so undeveloped outwardly. So already in her hometown, she almost again ended up in an orphanage. But she managed to find her sister, who by that time was studying at a technical school.
Irina Konstantinovna
I was not hired because I was allegedly 11 years old. Do you need something? I went to the dining room to wash the dishes, peel the potatoes. Then they made documents for me, went through the archives. During the year got a job
Irina Konstantinovna
Then there were eight years of work at a confectionery factory. In the post-war city, this made it possible sometimes to eat off defective, broken sweets. Irina Konstantinovna fled from there when they decided to promote her along the party line. “I had a wonderful leader, he said: “Look, you are being prepared for the head of the shop.” I say: “Help me escape.” I thought that I should mature before the party.
Irina Konstantinovna "washed away" to the Geological Institute, and then traveled a lot on expeditions to Chukotka and Yakutia. "On the road" managed to get married. She has over half a century of happy marriage behind her. "I am very satisfied with my life," says Irina Konstantinovna. Only now she never had a chance to play the piano again.
"I thought Hitler was the Serpent Gorynych"
The story of Regina Romanovna Zinovieva
“On June 22, I was in the kindergarten,” says Regina Romanovna. “We went for a walk, and I was in the first pair. And it was very honorable, they gave me a flag ... We leave proud, suddenly a woman runs, all disheveled, and shouts: " War, Hitler attacked us!" And I thought that it was the Serpent Gorynych who attacked and his fire comes from his mouth ... "
Then the five-year-old Regina was very upset that she never walked with a flag. But very soon "Serpent Gorynych" interfered in her life much more strongly. Dad went to the front as a signalman, and soon he was taken away on the "black funnel" - they took him immediately upon returning from the assignment, without even letting him change clothes. His surname was German - Hindenberg. The girl stayed with her mother, and famine began in the besieged city.
One day, Regina was waiting for her mother, who was supposed to pick her up from kindergarten. The teacher took the two late children out into the street and went to lock the doors. A woman approached the kids and offered them candy.
“We don’t see bread, there’s candy here! We really wanted to, but we were warned that we shouldn’t approach strangers. Fear won out, and we fled,” says Regina Romanovna. “Then the teacher came out. We wanted to show her this woman, and she was already trace is gone." Now Regina Romanovna understands that she managed to escape from the cannibal. At that time, Leningraders, mad with hunger, stole and ate children.
Mom tried to feed her daughter as best she could. Once she invited a speculator to exchange pieces of fabric for a couple of pieces of bread. The woman, looking around, asked if there were any children's toys in the house. And before the war, Regina was presented with a plush monkey, she was called Foka.
Regina Romanovna
I grabbed this monkey and shouted: "Take what you want, but I will not give this one! This is my favorite." And she really liked it. My mother and I ripped out a toy from me, and I roared ... Taking the monkey, the woman cut off more bread - more than for the fabric
Regina Romanovna
Having already become an adult, Regina Romanovna will ask her mother: “Well, how could you take away your favorite toy from a small child?” Mom said: "Perhaps this toy saved your life."
One day, while taking her daughter to the kindergarten, her mother fell in the middle of the street - she no longer had the strength. She was taken to the hospital. So little Regina ended up in an orphanage. “There were a lot of people, we were lying in a bed two by two. They put me with a girl, she was all swollen. Her legs were all in ulcers. you will be hurt.” And she told me: “No, they don’t feel anything anyway.”
The girl did not stay long in the orphanage - her aunt took her. And then, along with other kids from the kindergarten, she was sent to the evacuation.
Regina Romanovna
When we got there, they gave us semolina porridge. Oh, it was such a delight! We licked this porridge, licked the plates from all sides, but we had not seen such food for a long time ... And then we were put on a train and sent to Siberia
Regina Romanovna
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The boys are lucky: Tyumen region they were received very well. The children were given a former manor house - a strong, two-story one. They stuffed mattresses with hay, gave them land for a vegetable garden and even a cow. The guys weeded the beds, fished and gathered nettles for cabbage soup. After the hungry Leningrad, this life seemed calm and well-fed. But, like all Soviet children of that time, they worked not only for themselves: girls from senior group looked after the wounded and washed bandages in the local hospital, the boys, along with their teachers, went to logging. This work was hard even for adults. And the older children in the kindergarten were only 12-13 years old.
In 1944, the authorities considered the fourteen-year-old children already old enough to go to restore the liberated Leningrad. “Our manager went to the district center - part of the way on foot, part on hitches. The frost was 50–60 degrees,” recalls Regina Romanovna. “She traveled for three days to say: the children are weak, they will not be able to work. Only seven or eight of the strongest boys were sent to Leningrad."
Regina's mother survived. By that time, she worked at a construction site and corresponded with her daughter. It remained to wait for the victory.
Regina Romanovna
The manager had a crepe de chine red dress. She tore it up and hung it up like a flag. It was so beautiful! So, no regrets. And our boys staged a salute: they spread all the pillows and threw feathers. And the teachers didn't even fight. And then the girls collected feathers, made pillows for themselves, and the boys were left without pillows. This is how we celebrated Victory Day
Regina Romanovna
The children returned to Leningrad in September 1945. In the same year, they finally received the first letter from Regina Romanovna's father. It turned out that he had been in the camp in Vorkuta for two years already. Only in 1949 did the mother and daughter receive permission to visit him, and a year later he was released.
Regina Romanovna has a rich pedigree: there was a general in her family who fought in 1812, and her grandmother in 1917 defended Winter Palace. But nothing played such a role in her life as a German surname inherited from long-Russified ancestors. Because of her, she not only almost lost her father. Later, the girl was not taken to the Komsomol, and already an adult, Regina Romanovna herself refused to join the party, although she held a decent post. Her life has turned out happily: two marriages, two children, three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. But she still remembers how she did not want to part with the monkey Foka.
Regina Romanovna
The elders told me: when the blockade began, the weather was fine, the sky was blue. And a cross of clouds appeared over Nevsky Prospekt. He hung for three days. It was a sign to the city: it will be incredibly hard for you, but still you will endure
Regina Romanovna
"We were called" vykovyrki"
The story of Tatyana Stepanovna Medvedeva
Mom called little Tanya the last child: the girl was youngest child in a large family: she had a brother and six sisters. In 1941 she was 12 years old. “June 22 was warm, we were going to go sunbathing and swimming. And suddenly they announced that the war had begun,” says Tatyana Stepanovna. “We didn’t go anywhere, everyone cried, screamed ... And my brother immediately went to the draft board, said: I will go to fight” .
Parents were already elderly, they did not have the strength to fight. They quickly died: dad - in February, mom - in March. Tanya sat at home with her nephews, who were not much different from her in age - one of them, Volodya, was only ten. The sisters were taken to defense work. Someone dug trenches, someone took care of the wounded, and one of the sisters collected dead children around the city. And relatives were afraid that Tanya would be among them. “Ray’s sister said: ‘Tanya, you won’t survive here alone.’ The nephews were taken apart by their mothers — Volodya was taken to the factory by his mother, he worked with her, — says Tatyana Stepanovna. — Raya took me to the orphanage. Road of life."
The children were taken to the Ivanovo region, to the city of Gus-Khrustalny. And although there were no bombings and "125 blockade grams", life did not become simple. Subsequently, Tatyana Stepanovna talked a lot with the same grown-up children of besieged Leningrad and realized that other evacuated children did not live so hungry. Probably, it's a matter of geography: after all, the front line here was much closer than in Siberia. “When the commission came, we said that there was not enough food. They answered us: we give you horse portions, but you all want to eat,” recalls Tatyana Stepanovna. She still remembers these "horse portions" of gruel, cabbage soup and porridge. As is the cold. The girls slept in twos: they lay down on one mattress, covered themselves with another. There was nothing else to hide.
Tatyana Stepanovna
The locals didn't like us. They called them "tricks". Probably because when we arrived, we began to go from house to house, asking for bread ... And it was hard for them too. There was a river there, in winter I really wanted to run on skates. The locals gave us one skate for the whole group. Not a couple of skates - one skate. Riding in turns on one leg
Tatyana Stepanovna
The list of residents of Leningrad presented here, who died during the blockade of the city by the Nazi troops during the Great Patriotic War, is an analogue of the Book of Memory “Leningrad. Blockade. 1941-1944".
The placement of this list in the Consolidated Database is the result of cooperation between the All-Russian Information and Search Center "Fatherland" and Prince Vladimir Cathedral in St. Petersburg, where the All-Russian Commemoration Book was created in 2008.
The list contains 629 081
record. Of these, 586334 people know the place of residence, 318312 people - the place of burial.
An electronic version of the book is also available on the website. project "Returned Names" Russian National Library and in the Generalized Computer Data Bank of the Ministry of Defense Russian Federation OBD "Memorial" .
About the printed book:
Book of memory "Leningrad. Blockade. 1941-1944". In 35 volumes. 1996-2008 Circulation 250 copies.
Government of St. Petersburg.
Chairman of the Editorial Board Shcherbakov V.N.
Supervisor working group on the creation of the Book of Memory Shapovalov V.L.
An electronic databank for the Book of Memory was provided by the archive of the State Institution "Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery".
FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Book of memory "Leningrad. Blockade. 1941-1944" - a printed version of the electronic databank about the inhabitants of Leningrad, who died during the blockade of the city by the Nazi troops during the Great Patriotic War.
To preserve the memory of every deceased resident of the hero city, whether it is a person of mature years, a teenager or a young child - this is the task of this publication.
Preparations for the release of the Book of Memory “Leningrad. Blockade. 1941-1944 ”, the formation of a data bank on civilians who died during the blockade was carried out simultaneously with the creation of the Book of Memory of the fallen Leningrad servicemen - on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the victory of our people in the Great Patriotic war. The boundless courage, steadfastness and the highest sense of duty of the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad are rightfully equated with the military feat of the defenders of the city.
The losses of Leningrad during the years of the blockade are enormous, they amounted to over 600 thousand people. The volume of the printed martyrology is 35 volumes.
Documentary basis eBook memory, as well as its printed version, are information provided by numerous archives. These include the Central state archive Petersburg, the State City and Regional Archives and the archives of the district offices of the registry office of St. Petersburg, the archives of city cemeteries, as well as the archives of various institutions, organizations, enterprises, educational institutions and etc.
Work on the collection and systematization of documentary data was carried out by working groups created under the administrations of 24 districts of St. Petersburg (the territorial division of the city at the beginning of work on collecting information in 1992). The participants of the search groups worked in close cooperation with the initiators of the creation of the Book of Memory - members of the city society "Inhabitants of besieged Leningrad" and its regional branches. These groups conducted surveys of citizens at their place of residence, organized meetings and conversations with residents of besieged Leningrad, with front-line soldiers in order to collect missing information or clarify existing data. Surviving house registration books were carefully studied everywhere.
A great contribution to the preparation of the materials of the Memory Book “Leningrad. Blockade. 1941-1944" contributed researchers the Museum at the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery and the Museum "Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad" (a branch of the Museum of the History of St. Petersburg).
A lot of letters and applications with information about the dead in besieged Leningrad have been received and continue to be received by the editorial board from all republics, territories, regions of the Russian Federation, from countries near and far abroad through the International Association of Siege of the Hero City of Leningrad.
Territorial borders of the Memory Book “Leningrad. Blockade. 1941-1944 "- a large blockade ring: the cities of Leningrad, Kronstadt, part of the Slutsk, Vsevolozhsk and Pargolovsky districts of the Leningrad region - and a small blockade ring: the Oranienbaum bridgehead.
The Book of Memory includes information about the civilians of these territories who died during the blockade. Among them, along with the indigenous population of these places, are numerous refugees from Karelia, the Baltic states and remote areas of the Leningrad Region, occupied by the enemy.
The chronological framework of the Book of Memory: September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944. The first date is the tragic day of the beginning of the blockade. On this day, enemy troops cut off the land communications of the city with the country. The second date is the day of complete liberation from the blockade. Information about civilians, whose lives were cut short during the period indicated by these dates, is entered in the Book of Memory.
Memorial records of the dead are arranged in alphabetical order of their surnames. These records, identical in form, contain the following information: last name, first name, patronymic of the deceased, year of his birth, place of residence (at the time of death), date of death and place of burial.
Not all entries have the full composition of this data. There are also those where only separate, sometimes scattered and fragmentary information has been preserved about the dead. In the conditions of the city-front during the months of mass deaths of residents, it was not possible to organize the registration of all the dead in the prescribed manner, with the recording of data about them in proper completeness. In the most difficult months of the blockade, in the winter of 1941-1942, there were almost no individual burials. During this period, mass burials were made in cemeteries, trench burials near medical institutions, hospitals, enterprises, and in wastelands. By decision of the city authorities, cremation was organized in the city in the ovens of the Izhora Plant and Brick Plant No. 1. For these reasons, about half of the memorial records contain an indication that the place of burial is unknown. More than half a century after the end of the war, it was impossible to restore these data.
Variant information about the deceased is given in slash brackets. Information, the reliability of which is doubtful, is indicated by a question mark in parentheses. Scattered and fragmentary information about the place of residence are enclosed in angle brackets.
Titles settlements located outside the city, their administrative affiliation, the names of the streets in them, as well as the names of the streets of Leningrad, are indicated as of 1941-1944.
Everyone who happens to turn to the Book of Memory “Leningrad. Blockade. 1941-1944”, please note the following. Mistakes are possible in non-Russian names. Errors of this kind are marked either by a question mark in parentheses, or by indicating the correct forms in slash brackets. Only obvious spelling errors have been fixed.
In the Book of Memory there are entries that can be attributed to the same person. These records differ most often only in information about the place of residence of the deceased. This has its own explanation: at one address a person was registered and lived permanently, at another address he ended up due to the tragic circumstances of the siege. None of these paired records can be excluded due to insufficient documentary justification.
In the Book of Memory, generally accepted and commonly understood abbreviations are used.
Anyone who has any information about the dead in the blockade ring, please contact the editorial board at the following address: 195273, St. Petersburg, Nepokorennykh Ave., 72, State Institution "Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery". Book of memory "Leningrad. Blockade. 1941-1944".
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, on the initiative of the Archives Committee Petersburg created electronic base data (hereinafter referred to as the DB) “Siege of Leningrad. Evacuation". Now users can independently find information about their relatives evacuated from besieged Leningrad in 1941-1943.
The painstaking work on the project is carried out by specialists from several services and departments: archivists of the Central State Archive Petersburg, their colleagues from the departmental archives of district administrations, employees of city committees on education and health, as well as employees Petersburg Information and analytical center.
The creation of the database took place in several stages. First of all, documents on the evacuated citizens from the archives of the district administrations were transferred to the Central State Archive. Admiralteisky, Vasileostrovsky, Vyborgsky, Kalininsky, Nevsky, Primorsky and Central regions promptly submitted necessary materials. In most cases, these are card indexes - that is, alphabetically selected cards on the evacuees. As a rule, they indicate the number, surname, name, patronymic of a citizen, year of birth, address of residence before evacuation, date of evacuation, as well as the place of departure and information about family members who traveled with the evacuee.
Unfortunately, in a number of districts, such as Kurortny and Kronstadt, file cabinets were not kept or have not been preserved. In such cases, the only source of information is the lists of evacuees, filled out by hand, often in illegible handwriting, and poorly preserved. All these features create additional difficulties when transferring information to a single database. In the Petrogradsky, Moskovsky, Kirovsky, Krasnoselsky and Kolpinsky districts, documents have not been preserved, which significantly complicates the search.
The next step in creating a database is the digitization of file cabinets, that is, their conversion into electronic form by scanning. Digitization is carried out on in-line scanners by the staff of the Information and Analytical Center. And here it is of particular importance physical state scanned documents, as some of them have hard-to-read text or are physically damaged. In many ways, it is this indicator that affects the quality and speed of the information subsequently loaded into the database.
At the final stage, the electronic images of the cards are sent for processing to the operators of the Information and Analytical Center, who enter the information contained in them into the database by manual typing.
On the eve of the anniversary of the Victory on April 29, 2015, as part of the reception of veterans, the reception at the Archives Committee Petersburg war veterans and residents of besieged Leningrad within the framework of events held on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - database “Siege of Leningrad. Evacuation" was solemnly opened and became available to a wide range of Internet users at: http://evacuation.spbarchives.ru.
In the process of working on the project, documents of the war period (1941 - 1945) were additionally identified in a large volume, work with which will continue in the future, as well as the replenishment of the database new information. Currently, about 620.8 thousand cards have been entered into the database.
However, work on the project continues. To replenish the database with new information, a long process of scanning the actual lists of evacuated residents of Leningrad will be necessary.
The blockade of Leningrad became the most difficult test for the inhabitants of the city in the history of the Northern capital. In the besieged city, according to various estimates, up to half of the population of Leningrad perished. The survivors did not even have the strength to mourn the dead: some were extremely exhausted, others were seriously injured. Despite hunger, cold and constant bombing, people found the courage to stand and defeat the Nazis. To judge what the inhabitants of the besieged city had to endure in those terrible years, one can use statistical data - the language of the figures of the besieged Leningrad.
872 days and nights
The blockade of Leningrad lasted exactly 872 days. The Germans encircled the city on September 8, 1941, and on January 27, 1944, the inhabitants of the northern capital rejoiced at the complete liberation of the city from fascist blockade. Within six months after the blockade was lifted, the enemies still remained near Leningrad: their troops were in Petrozavodsk and Vyborg. The soldiers of the Red Army drove the Nazis away from the approaches to the city during an offensive operation in the summer of 1944.
150 thousand shells
During the long months of the blockade, the Nazis dropped 150,000 heavy artillery shells and over 107,000 incendiary and high-explosive bombs on Leningrad. They destroyed 3,000 buildings and damaged more than 7,000. All the main monuments of the city survived: Leningraders hid them, covering them with sandbags and plywood shields. Some sculptures - for example, from the Summer Garden and horses from the Anichkov Bridge - were removed from their pedestals and buried in the ground until the end of the war.
There were bombings in Leningrad every day. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova
13 hours 14 minutes of shelling
Shelling in besieged Leningrad was daily: sometimes the Nazis attacked the city several times a day. People hid from the bombings in the basements of houses. On August 17, 1943, Leningrad was subjected to the longest shelling in the entire blockade. It lasted 13 hours and 14 minutes, during which the Germans dropped 2,000 shells on the city. Residents of besieged Leningrad admitted that the noise of enemy aircraft and exploding shells sounded in their heads for a long time.
Up to 1.5 million dead
By September 1941, the population of Leningrad and its suburbs was about 2.9 million people. The blockade of Leningrad, according to various estimates, claimed the lives of from 600 thousand to 1.5 million inhabitants of the city. Only 3% of people died from fascist bombings, the remaining 97% - from hunger: about 4 thousand people died from exhaustion every day. When food supplies ran out, people began to eat cake, wallpaper paste, leather belts and boots. Dead bodies lay on the streets of the city: this was considered a common situation. Often, when someone in the family died, people had to bury their relatives on their own.
1 million 615 thousand tons of cargo
On September 12, 1941, the Road of Life was opened - the only highway connecting the besieged city with the country. The road of life, laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga, saved Leningrad: about 1 million 615 thousand tons of goods - food, fuel and clothing were delivered to the city along it. During the blockade along the highway through Ladoga, more than a million people were evacuated from Leningrad.
125 grams of bread
Until the end of the first month of the blockade, the inhabitants of the besieged city received a fairly good bread ration. When it became obvious that the flour stocks would not be enough for a long time, the norm was sharply reduced. So, in November and December 1941, city employees, dependents and children received only 125 grams of bread per day. The workers were given 250 grams of bread, and the composition of the paramilitary guards, fire brigades and fighter squads - 300 grams each. Contemporaries would not be able to eat blockade bread, because it was prepared from practically inedible impurities. Bread was baked from rye and oat flour with the addition of cellulose, wallpaper dust, needles, cake and unfiltered malt. The loaf turned out very bitter in taste and completely black.
1500 loudspeakers
After the beginning of the blockade until the end of 1941, 1,500 loudspeakers were installed on the walls of Leningrad houses. Radio broadcasting in Leningrad was carried out around the clock, and the inhabitants of the city were forbidden to turn off their receivers: on the radio, announcers talked about the situation in the city. When the broadcast stopped, the sound of a metronome was broadcast on the radio. In the event of an alarm, the rhythm of the metronome accelerated, and after the completion of the shelling, it slowed down. Leningraders called the sound of the metronome on the radio the living heartbeat of the city.
98 thousand newborns
During the blockade, 95,000 children were born in Leningrad. Most of them, about 68 thousand newborns, were born in the autumn and winter of 1941. In 1942, 12.5 thousand children were born, and in 1943 - only 7.5 thousand. In order for the babies to survive, a farm of three thoroughbred cows was organized at the Pediatric Institute of the city so that the children could receive fresh milk: in most cases, young mothers did not have milk.
The children of besieged Leningrad suffered from dystrophy. Photo: Archival photo
-32° frost
The first blockade winter was the coldest in the besieged city. On some days the thermometer dropped to -32°C. The situation was aggravated by heavy snowfalls: by April 1942, when the snow should have already melted, the height of the snowdrifts reached 53 centimeters. Leningraders lived without heating and electricity in their houses. To keep warm, the inhabitants of the city flooded stoves-potbelly stoves. Due to the lack of firewood, they burned everything inedible that was in the apartments: furniture, old things and books.
144 thousand liters of blood
Despite hunger and the most severe living conditions, Leningraders were ready to give their last for the front in order to hasten the victory. Soviet troops. Every day, from 300 to 700 residents of the city donated blood for the wounded in hospitals, transferring the received material compensation to the defense fund. Subsequently, the Leningrad Donor aircraft will be built with this money. In total, during the blockade, Leningraders donated 144,000 liters of blood for front-line soldiers.
Siege of Leningrad: Survivors in HellToday is the Day of Lifting the Siege of Leningrad! Congratulations to all whose families have been affected by this. terrible time! Do not forget to congratulate your Leningraders! This must not be forgotten! That was only 70 years ago!
The blockade of Leningrad lasted exactly 871 days. This is the longest and most terrible siege of the city in the history of mankind. Almost 900 days of pain and suffering, courage and selflessness. 
Many years after the siege of Leningrad was broken, many historians, and even ordinary people, wondered if this nightmare could have been avoided. Escape, apparently not. For Hitler, Leningrad was a "tidbit" - after all, here is Baltic Fleet and the road to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, from where, during the war, help came from the allies and, if the city had surrendered, it would have been destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth. Was it possible to mitigate the situation and prepare for it in advance? The issue is controversial and deserves a separate study.
The first days of the siege of Leningrad 
On September 8, 1941, during the offensive of the fascist army, the city of Shlisselburg was captured, thus the blockade ring was closed. In the early days, few believed in the seriousness of the situation, but many residents of the city began to thoroughly prepare for the siege: in just a few hours, all savings were withdrawn from the savings banks, the shops were empty, everything that was possible was bought up.
Not everyone managed to evacuate when systematic shelling began, but they began immediately, in September, the evacuation routes were already cut off. There is an opinion that it was the fire that occurred on the first day of the siege of Leningrad in the Badaev warehouses - in the storage of the city's strategic reserves - that provoked a terrible famine during the siege days. 
However, recently declassified documents give somewhat different information: it turns out that there was no such thing as a "strategic reserve", since in the conditions of the outbreak of war to create a large reserve for such a huge city as Leningrad was (and at that time about 3 million people) was not possible, so the city ate imported food, and the existing stocks would only be enough for a week. Literally from the first days of the blockade, ration cards were introduced, schools were closed, military censorship was introduced: any attachments to letters were prohibited, and messages containing decadent moods were confiscated. 
Siege of Leningrad - pain and death
Memories of the siege of Leningrad by the people who survived it, their letters and diaries reveal a terrible picture to us. A terrible famine struck the city. Money and jewelry depreciated. The evacuation began in the autumn of 1941, but only in January 1942 did it become possible to withdraw a large number of people, mostly women and children, through the Road of Life. There were huge queues at the bakeries, where daily rations were given out.
In addition to hunger, besieged Leningrad was attacked by other disasters: very frosty winters, sometimes the thermometer dropped to -40 degrees. Fuel ran out and water pipes froze - the city was left without electricity, and drinking water. Another problem for the besieged city in the first blockade winter was rats. They not only destroyed food supplies, but also spread all kinds of infections. People were dying, and they did not have time to bury them, the corpses lay right on the streets. There were cases of cannibalism and robbery. 
Life of besieged Leningrad
At the same time, Leningraders tried with all their might to survive and not let them die. hometown. Not only that: Leningrad helped the army by producing military products - the factories continued to work in such conditions. Theaters and museums restored their activities. It was necessary - to prove to the enemy, and, most importantly, to ourselves: the blockade of Leningrad will not kill the city, it continues to live! One of the brightest examples of amazing dedication and love for the Motherland, life, and native city is the history of the creation of D. Shostakovich's most famous symphony, later called "Leningrad".
Rather, the composer began to write it in Leningrad, and finished already in the evacuation. When the score was ready, it was taken to the besieged city. By that time, the symphony orchestra had already resumed its activities in Leningrad. On the day of the concert, so that enemy raids could not disrupt it, our artillery did not let a single fascist aircraft near the city! All the days of the blockade, the Leningrad radio worked, which for all Leningraders was not only a life-giving source of information, but also simply a symbol of continuing life. 
Road of Life - the pulse of the besieged city
From the first days of the blockade, the Road of Life began its dangerous and heroic work - the pulse of besieged Leningrad. In summer - water, and in winter - an ice path connecting Leningrad with the "mainland" along Lake Ladoga. On September 12, 1941, the first barges with food arrived in the city along this route, and until late autumn, until storms made navigation impossible, barges went along the Road of Life.
Each of their flights was a feat - enemy aircraft constantly made their raids, weather often, too, were not in the hands of sailors - the barges continued their voyages even in late autumn, until the very appearance of ice, when navigation was already basically impossible. On November 20, the first horse and sledge convoy descended onto the ice of Lake Ladoga. A little later, trucks went along the ice Road of Life. The ice was very thin, despite the fact that the truck was carrying only 2-3 bags of food, the ice broke through and it was not uncommon for the trucks to sink.
At the risk of their lives, the drivers continued their deadly journeys until the very spring. Military Highway No. 101, as this route was called, made it possible to increase the bread ration and evacuate many people. The Germans constantly tried to break this thread connecting the besieged city with the country, but thanks to the courage and fortitude of the Leningraders, the Road of Life lived by itself and gave life to the great city.
The significance of the Ladoga highway is enormous, it has saved thousands of lives. Now on the shore of Lake Ladoga there is a museum "The Road of Life". 
Children's contribution to the liberation of Leningrad from the blockade. Ensemble of A.E.Obrant
At all times there is no greater grief than a suffering child. Blockade children are a special topic. Having matured early, not childishly serious and wise, they, along with adults, did their best to bring victory closer. Children are heroes, each fate of which is a bitter echo of those terrible days. Children's dance ensemble A.E. Obranta - a special piercing note of the besieged city.
During the first winter of the siege of Leningrad, many children were evacuated, but despite this, for various reasons, many children remained in the city. The Palace of Pioneers, located in the famous Anichkov Palace, switched to martial law with the outbreak of war. Even 3 years before the start of the war, the Song and Dance Ensemble was created on the basis of the Palace of Pioneers. At the end of the first blockade winter, the remaining teachers tried to find their pupils in the besieged city, and the ballet master A.E. Obrant created a dance group from the children who remained in the city. It is terrible even to imagine and compare the terrible blockade days and pre-war dances! Nevertheless, the ensemble was born. At first, the guys had to be restored from exhaustion, only then they were able to start rehearsals.
However, already in March 1942, the first performance of the band took place. The fighters, who had seen a lot, could not hold back their tears, looking at these courageous children. Remember how long the blockade of Leningrad lasted? So during this considerable time the ensemble gave about 3,000 concerts. Wherever the guys had to perform: often the concerts had to end in a bomb shelter, since several times during the evening the performances were interrupted by air raid alerts, it happened that young dancers performed a few kilometers from the front line, and in order not to attract the enemy with unnecessary noise, they danced without music, and the floors were covered with hay. Strong in spirit, they supported and inspired our soldiers; the contribution of this team to the liberation of the city can hardly be overestimated. Later, the guys were awarded medals "For the Defense of Leningrad". 
Breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad
In 1943, a turning point occurred in the war, and at the end of the year, Soviet troops were preparing to liberate the city. On January 14, 1944, during the general offensive of the Soviet troops, the final operation began to lift the blockade of Leningrad. The task was to inflict a crushing blow on the enemy south of Lake Ladoga and restore the land routes connecting the city with the country. By January 27, 1944, the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, with the help of Kronstadt artillery, broke through the blockade of Leningrad. The Nazis began to retreat. Soon the cities of Pushkin, Gatchina and Chudovo were liberated. The blockade was completely lifted.
Blockade of Leningrad - a tragic and great page Russian history that claimed more than 2 million lives. As long as the memory of these terrible days lives in the hearts of people, finds a response in talented works of art, is passed on to posterity - this will not happen again! The blockade of Leningrad was briefly but succinctly described by Vera Inberg, her lines are a hymn to the great city and at the same time a requiem for the departed. 
| It seemed like the end of the earth... But through the cooled planet cars went to Leningrad: he is still alive. He's around somewhere. To Leningrad, to Leningrad! And tremble, and are silent, and wait, And it was like this: all the way | Repair for five minutes, a trifle. This breakdown is not a threat, yes, do not unbend your hands in any way: they were frozen on the steering wheel. Slightly disperse - again reduce. And now - in the gasoline of his hand Forward! How the blisters ache |  |
